Living Church of God's Aristocracy and Bureaucratic Dysfunction

From a reader here regarding the letter from Darryl describing his experience at the hands of Living "University."

Darryl, you have witnessed and experienced life in an organization that has degenerated into cultic institutionalism, spawned by typical bureaucratic dysfunction mated with the peculiar COG aristocracy of the ministry. Many here will argue that it always has exhibited this characteristic, which may be true, but you can at least see that LCG has suffered increasing corruption since the Global Church of God days when Roderick C. Meredith wrote the booklet WhenShould You Follow Church Government?

Consider the following from Gene Getz in his book, Sharpening The Focus Of The Church (p. 252), which gives the following "symptoms" of institutionalism, (and in the case of LCG it is "cultic institutionalism" when combined with the pervasive theology of supreme apostolic authority held by the ministry):

1-- The organization (the form and structure) becomes more important than the people who make up the organization.

2-- Individuals begin to function in the organization more like cogs in a machine.

3-- Individuality and creativity are lost in the structural mass.

4-- The atmosphere in the organization becomes threatening rather than open and free; people are often afraid to ask uncomfortable questions.

5-- The structural arrangements in the organization have become rigid and inflexible.

6-- People are serving the organization more than the objectives for which the organization was brought into existence. In other words, means have become ends.

7-- Communication often breaks down, particularly because of a repressive atmosphere and lots of red tape.

8-- People become prisoners of their procedures. The "policy manual" and the "rule book" get bigger, and fresh ideas are few and far between.

9-- In order to survive in a cold structure, people develop their own special interests within the organization, creating competitive departments and divisions. The corporate objective gives way to a multitude of unrelated objectives which, inevitably, results in lack of unity in the organization as a whole.

10-- Morale degenerates and people lose their initiative; they become discouraged and often critical of the organization and of others in the organization--particularly its leaders.

11-- As the organization gets bigger and as time passes, the process of institutionalization often speeds up. A hierarchy of leadership develops, increasing the problems of communication from the top to the bottom and the bottom to the top. People toward the bottom, or even in the middle of the organizational structure, feel more and more as if they "really don't count" in the organization.7

When these symptoms are present cultic institutionalism has already "progressed" into its advanced stages.

Is Oklahoma Being Punished for Allowing the Philadelphia Church of God Cult in its Midst?

The area around the cult compound of Gerald Flurry in Edmond, Oklahoma continues to be rocked by earthquakes.  Is the state of Oklahoma being punished for allowing the evil of the PCG to exist in its midst?  Whats Flurry going to do if a big quake demolishes his mini-me imitation Ambassador Auditorium?  One can only dream....

From a reader:

• today: 4.3 in Guthrie, Oklahoma, United States
• this week: 4.3 in Guthrie, Oklahoma, United States
• this month 4.3 in Guthrie, Oklahoma, United States

Guthrie is just north of Edmond, OK

Oklahoma, United States has had  (M1.5 or greater)

• 56 earthquakes in the past 7 days
• 218 earthquakes in the past month
• 1,752 earthquakes in the past year

Living Church of God: Black LCG Member Asks "...why are we as a people looked down upon as we are, and even in the church, why are we persecuted more than any other people in this world”

The stories continue to flow out of the Living Church of God daily on the abusive techniques the LCG is using against its members.

When will Rod Meredith, Richard Ames, Doug Winnail and others stand up and say we are sorry, we have been wrong and we want to correct our mistakes?  None of us here can ever imagine this happening.  Rod Meredith and crew instead are digging their heals in and blaming this site and others for the discontent of their members.  We have not caused the current crisis in the LCG. The members are coming to this blog and others because the LCG hierarchy will NOT listen to them without labeling them as heretics and kicking them out for bad attitudes.

Interestingly enough, the following letter was posted on James Malm's blog today.  It is about the racist polices of the Living Church of God towards African-American members.  Meredith continues to enforce the racist polices that he learned under Herbert Armstrong.  Those racist ideas came directly as a result of the abominable teaching of British-Israelism and its white superiority.

The Living Church of God cruelty kicked out several African-American LCG members over this very issue.  They brought forth their objections to it and out the door they went. 

The letter on Malm's blog states:

I attended lcg church for aproximately eight years. I am a black man who attended sabbath services faithfully. I would always follow along through the scriptures with whom ever the speaker would be, and in doing so, I would only study what had been taught by way of lituriture that he would refer you to. Mr. Roderick Meredith would sometimes start fist pounding saying things like: “check up on me, check out what we say in the pages of your own bible”; or things like “brethren, we must warn our peoples”. Sometimes shouting and fist pounding. And we (blacks) heard this so much that we started talking among ourselves saying; “now wait a minute! Where are we in the scriptures? Surely whites are not the only ones in the bible! But thats all they’d stress”. So after so much talking over time, I started praying and asking our Lord; “why are we as a people looked down upon as we are, and even in the church, why are we persecuted more than any other people in this world”? Once, a time while taveling home from a feast site; I had two passengers riding who were of Phillipian desent. Somehow the races became the topic of conversation, I was blown away when the back seat passenger said: “you see Kennie, you people are from Ham, and this is why you all are under the curse!” I was almost angry enough to pull off the highway and put her out of my vehicle, but Jesus would not have done so. But this is what was and is still taught at lcg, that white people are the true Israelite people; as HWA has stated that his grandmother is on the lineage of King David; the throne of David even now sits in Wales! I was wow’d when I heard all this jiberish from Doug Winnail. But, when I heard him at our congregation speak about marriage, I just really was done. To say things like, people should stay with their own kind is not God like. I fill that he was sent there just to relay that message to blacks, to stay with your own.

So I then refused to invite my eldest son and his family to the church because his wife is white. But after alot of talking and praying about these things, I started to search the scriptures for myself, and low and behold, the Lord directed me to places in the bible that I had never been before! Scriptures that Mr Meredith, Doug Winnail, Richard Ames, and a host other ministers constantly danced around or quickly skimmed over picking and choosing always in certain areas of the Bible to get their point across, but never, never, not even once out of eight long years did they even remotely touch on certain scriptures.

He then goes on to write about his own interpretation of how the 12 tribes were formed by skin color.  He falls into the same trap that Meredith is in.  If the kingdom truly is what Scripture says it is, then this is what it will be like:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal. 3:28

In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him Acts 10:34-35

That also applies to race.  Caucasians are not superior to blacks, Caucasians are not superior to Latino's, Asians, Indians or anyone else.  Its irrelevant as to what a persons skin color is.  If the kingdom is about finally being at rest with God, then what significance does skin color have to do with it?  For Meredith, Armstrong, Craig White and others it is important that whites occupy all leadership  positions in the kingdom.  According to them every single "hero" in the Bible, every prophet, every apostle, and every true convert were white.